REAL ISLAM – PART I

If you go on Islam.org you will see it argued that “Islam is primarily a religion of peace. Its name ‘Islam’ comes from ‘silm’ which means two things: one is ‘submitting to God’ and the second is ‘peace.’” It tells us that Jihad means struggle and refers primarily to a spiritual struggle inside the individual. They go on to make a decent case that the portrayals of Islam a violent religion comes from taking the words of the Quran out of context. Of the famous Sura 2:191, which enjoins Muslims to confront unbelievers and “Kill them wherever you find them,” it says: “It surely does not say that Muslims should go around the world killing any infidel that they find!”[i] But what is the truth? Is Islam a ‘religion of peace’? Or is it the religion of intolerance and violence and terror? In this series we will explore the real face of Islam.

BLOOD LUST

“Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.” (John 16:2-3) (ESV)

What is the ‘true face’ of Islam? Is it the barbarian terrorism shown us by the likes of al-Qaeda and ISIS? The chief imam of Saudi Arabia insists it is not. “The ideas of extremism, radicalism and terrorism … have nothing to do with Islam.”[ii] But do they? The imam was responding to the graphic carnage practiced by the likes of ISIS operatives, among others. On August 19th, they released a video of the beheading of American journalist James Foley who had been kidnapped 22 months previously. He read a prepared statement and his head was lopped off for the cameras – all as a warning to the US to cease and desist from carrying out airstrikes against ISIS fighters in Iraq and elsewhere.[iii] The horror of the execution spread across the world through the internet and the mainstream media. This act by a British Jihadist was most decidedly not the isolated act of some lone-wolf terrorist. This sort of public terror is the coin-of-the-realm for ISIS, as well as other Islamic terror organizations.[iv] American businessman Mark Arabo returned from Iraq telling CNN that what he witnessed is a “Christian holocaust.” He went on. “Day by day, it is getting worse and worse. More children are being beheaded. Mothers are being raped and killed. Fathers are being hung. Right now, 300,000 Christians are fleeing Iraq and living in neighboring cities….They are absolutely killing every Christian they see. This is absolutely a genocide in every sense of the word. They want everyone to convert, and they want sharia law to be the law of the land.”[v] Reports are surfacing that the ISIS fighters are “burying hundreds of children alive” and publicly crucifying young Christians. (Note the surrounding crowd calmly watching and taking pictures with their camera phones.)[vi] These actions were even confirmed by the reportorially careful Christian Science Monitor which reported: “Islamic terrorists in Iraq are killing children and burying people alive, and it won’t stop there. They have a message for America: ‘We’re coming for you’ … In just one day, tens of thousands of Christians fled.”[vii]

Iraq is not the only place this type of Islamic terror is going on. Catholic On Line carried a story and images of one terrorist displaying the severed heads of his victims, his 5 or 6 year old son doing the same – and a picture of what appears to be about a nine year old boy severing the head of a prisoner with a sword. All that action was going on in Syria.[viii] Meanwhile Nigeria’s Boko Haran seems to be vying to outdo even these atrocities. On August 6th, Gawker News reported the murder of 100 civilians and the kidnapping of 100 males from one Christian village. [You can add that to the 200 Nigerian schoolgirls taken in April.][ix] Then this report from Bare Naked Islam. “Muslims, all belonging to Boko Haram, entered the Christian village of Gwoza and butchered one thousand Christians….They were shot, burned alive, and slashed to death. They were slaughtered with bullets, cooked alive, and hacked to death.”[x] Former-terrorist-turned-Christian Walid Shoebat points out that this is the exact pattern of historical Islam: Conquest, destruction, murder and intolerance. It can be traced back to the very founding of this ‘Religion of Peace.’ He gives the modern example of the “the so-called Free Syrian Army, Muslims from different nations whom converged into Syria,” carrying out atrocities and carnage – all with the support of the US government and the West. His argument is summed up in the title: “ISIS Is True Islam.”[xi] And it may not stay in the Middle East. World Net Daily’s Barry Farber tells us that it is believed that perhaps 1,000 ISIS-minded-jihadists may already be in America, dedicated to our destruction. Then he asks: “How about a few hundred infiltrators taking their assigned positions, not just in Washington, New York and Philadelphia, but in Gaffney, South Carolina, Yadkinville, North Carolina, Tyler, Texas, and Butte, Montana? And, at the appointed time, emptying automatic weapons up and down shopping malls and main streets all across America?”[xii] It is a haunting question!

The End Time’s Ministry – Countdown To Zero Time – fleshes the threat out for us a bit. It identifies around 110,000 Saudi students now in the US of which 8,000 are said to be “followers of ISIS.” That’s just the background. Now, ISIS operatives have been found to be in the US, having released Tweets that threatened the United States with clearly identifiable landmarks in the background. One was tweeted from Chicago and another from in front of the White House which read: “‘[W]e are here #America near our #target sooooooooooooon’”[xiii] For what it’s worth, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service – [not that they have an agenda] – is reporting that an alliance between ISIS and Boko Haran has produced 3,000 Ebola martyrs who will be used to attack the US using Ebola as a bioweapon. The Russians state that they became aware of the “Ebola Martyrs” plot by monitoring an ISIS terror cell supposedly operating out of the Saudi Embassy in Washington.[xiv] That is not as far-fetched as it seems. Saudi involvement as long been alleged in the 9/11 attacks. Congressmen Walter Jones (R-NC) and Stephen Lynch (D-Mass) have revealed that there is a 28 page gap in the official 9/11 report which deals with “specific sources of foreign support.” Other leaks from the report revealed a CIA memo that gave “incontrovertible evidence” of involvement by Saudi government officials giving direct logistical and financial aid to the hijackers. The New York Post states: “The intelligence files cited in the report directly implicate the Saudi embassy in Washington and consulate in Los Angeles in the attacks, making 9/11 not just an act of terrorism, but an act of war.”[xv] (A bit of a detour there – but a necessary one, I would argue.)

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So which picture is really Islam? What are we to make of this emergent, prime challenge to the Truth of Scripture and the Reality of the God of the Bible. Islam represents over 1billion dedicated followers. Their sacred books commit them, – whether they know it or not, – to a faith that holds as one of its main tenets to advance the cause of Allah by force if necessary, until a worldwide Caliphate is established. Islam is a faith that while giving a nod to the Old and New Testaments, claims that they are corrupted and expressly denies God’s promises to the Jews and the deity and Sonship of Jesus the Christ. It is Christianity’s primary challenger on the world stage. And though claiming to be a ‘Religion of Peace’; – it sets out a course for the violent overthrow of civilizations in advancement of its own cause. a direct causal relationship between Radical Islam and Terror. connection between the slaughter of innocents and the holy scripture of this ‘Religion of Peace.’. It is a faith committed to world domination, – by any means.

It is something that is not always realized, – but it is the ‘Religion of Peace’ itself that is at the root of terrorism. It is built in to their theological assumptions. The motivation, as Daniel Pipes points out, is not necessarily to cause the West, or the US or even Israel to retreat in Iraq or Saudi Arabia or Kashmir. Rather the motivation is the establishment of an Islamic World Empire. Bin Laden referred to it as the “pious caliphate.” Islamist thinker Abdullah Azzam declared that his goal was “…the establishment of Allah’s Rule on earth.”[xvi] Cal Thomas analyzes the situation thus; – “Even if Israel were obliterated…the terror would continue until the entire non-Islamic world is under their control.”[xvii] So do not be fooled into thinking that their motivation is poverty on the Arab Street or resentment of the West. It is simply a literal and dedicated reading of the Koran and the Hadith that spawns the terror, fed by a culture that feeds and nurtures it with its 7th century code of ethics and honor.

So hate is preached throughout the Muslim world. The calls for the death to Jews and the end of Israel fill the mosques and the Arab airwaves, as they broadcast the Friday night sermons of the imams. And it matters not that a Muslim majority is peace loving. In fact that may not even be true. A survey in the somewhat ‘moderate state of Jordan found that over half of Jordanian Muslims believe that suicide bombings are legitimate tools. Polling has revealed that 25% of British Muslims would not warn authorities if they have knowledge of a planned terror attack.[xviii] And why should we be surprised. Foreign supported mosques preach their vile hatred throughout Britain and across the United States. C.A.I.R., (Council on American Islamic Relations), representing itself as a moderate Islamic organization is found to have key members with links to financing terror. All the while imams will periodically issue a ruling that justifies the killing of civilians, – so long as it is done in the name of advancing Islam. That is its sole requirement. All the while, the Koran is preached with its clear justifications for violence against the foes of Islam. “Slay the idolaters wherever you find them,” Sura 9:5 commands. And the violent and arbitrary Mohammed himself is held up as model. That ethic has found its expression against the West through terror. Here are some examples worth remembering:

The takeover of the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979, – The 1983 bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut killing 63, – The attack on the Marine barracks in that same year, killing 241, – Take over of the Achille Lauro cruise ship in 1985, – Attacks on American servicemen in Madrid and Germany that same year, – The downing of Pan-Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland that killed 259, – The 1993 attempt to blow up the World Trade Center in New York that resulted in 6 killed and 1,000 injured, – The 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, – The attacks on the American Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya which killed 224, – The October 2000 attack on the USS Cole, the French Tanker and Bali Night Club attacks of 2002, the London Underground attacks of 2005 – ….The Attack on 9/11. And for Israel: The slaughter of the Munich Olympics, the incessant suicide bombings, till no place is safe: Thus is the fruit of the ‘Religion of Peace.’

So as we look at Islam; its origin, its practice, its meaning and its future significance, – we see in it a perfect foil for the nation of Israel, set up in direct opposition to God’s people and the Truth of the Bible. As such it perverts the very notion of God’s Truth, – expressly denying the anointing and appointing of the Jews as God’s people, and the Holy Land as God’s land. And through its truth-denying misrepresentation of the very character of God, it offers itself as servant of the antichrist forces that will serve as a vehicle of prophetic fulfillment.

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